What is a swastika and what does it mean

1. What is a swastika and what does it mean By Alexis Goodwin

2. What is a swastika? • The swastika is an extremely powerful symbol. The Nazis used it to murder millions of people, but for centuries it had positive meanings. What is the history of the swastika? Does it now represent good or evil?

3. The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been used for over 3,000 years. (That even predates the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) Artifacts such as pottery and coins from ancient Troy show that the swastika was a commonly used symbol as far back as 1000 BCE.

4. Before the Nazis used the swastika.. • Until the Nazis used this symbol the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3000 years to represent life sun power strength and good luck

5. What does the swastika look like • The Swastika did not originate as a Nazi Symbol of hatred. For more than 3,000 years, the swastika meant life and good luck. The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles, all in the same direction, usually the right, or clockwise. The swastika is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and is widely dispersed in both the ancient and modern world

6. In Nazi Germany, the swastika with its arms turned clockwise became the national symbol. In 1910, a poet and nationalist Guido von List suggested that the swastika as a symbol for all anti-Semitic organizations. When the National Socialist Party was formed in 1919, it adopted the ancient symbol, the swastika, giving it the worst meaning possible, destroying the good symbolism, which the swastika had held for thousands of years prior.

7. Nazis flag Because of the Nazis’ flag, the swastika soon became a symbol of hate, antisemitism, violence, deathThe swastika was adopted by Germany’s Nazi Party. Prior to the Nazis co-opting this symbol, it was known as a good luck symbol and was used by various religious groups. Hitler made the Nazi swastika unique to his party by reversing the normal direction of the symbol so that it appeared to spin clockwise. Today, it is widely used, in various incarnations, by neo-Nazis, racist skinheads and other white supremacist groups. , and murder.

8. This is the Nazis flag

9. However, in the twisted, quasi-science of Nazi ancient history, the Swastika was the symbol of the Aryan race, the purest element of humanity, from whom all true Germanic stock were descended. By adopting the swastika the Nazis were affirming their association with the Aryans and therefore with what they perceived to be pure humanity.

10. What the swatikarepresents • The Nazi flag, adopted during Germany's darkest historical period, contains the Nazi symbol. The symbol, however, did not previously represent hatred of any race as it did during the Jewish Holocaust. Another name for the symbol, "swastika," is derived from the Sanskrit word "svastika," which means "good fortune" or "well-being."